The God Delusion
(CARROLLTON, TX-Cradle of Civilization) An obscure book club, Viri de Libris, will undertake the reading of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Written in 2006, how does it hold up almost 20 years later? This book was described by the Sunday Times (London) as:
An entertaining, wildly informative, splendidly written polemic...
And Penn and Teller allowed as to how,
If this book doesn't change the world, we're all screwed.
So, did it change the world? Well, let’s find out, shall we?
The book's dedication page is an "In Memoriam":
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful
without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?'
Without having read the book yet, this I take as possibly indicative of his approach: A garden is beautiful, and you don't have to believe in the supernatural for that to be so. To which the only response I can presently muster is, "So what?"
Nevertheless, the VDL will meet weekly (weakly?) to discuss what we have read. There are ten chapters and two chapters seem to average about 90 pages or so, and so we will attempt to tackle and report on a chapter a week. Maybe more, maybe less.
Note, as of this moment, I have no intention to attempt to prove the existence of God. That is the task of philosophy, and I don’t think this is a philosophy book. I wish only to see the merit of the position that Dawkins champions, which I believe is stated in the title of Chapter 4: "Why there is almost certainly no God." \
Join us, won’t you?
Next: Basking in his brilliance.